


By a Father's Side

by RenaRoo



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW Comics), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-11
Updated: 2017-04-11
Packaged: 2018-10-17 17:59:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10599243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RenaRoo/pseuds/RenaRoo
Summary: Casey never knew what it was like to have a home or a father before.





	

**Author's Note:**

> anonymous prompt: Welcome home, Casey and Splinter

Casey was not really a quiet man. He wasn’t exactly a wilting flower. It had never done him a lot of good to turn away from a fight, the fight always got brought to him more often than not anyway. 

So he wasn’t one to back down, even when he knew he had messed up, and knew he had messed up more than he could hope to repair. 

That was the excuse he was using at the moment. The one for not going to his friends – his brothers. 

They had April, and she was more use to them than he could ever hope to be. And he couldn’t ever imagine facing them after becoming the very thing he had come to hate so much. Leader of the Purple Dragons – _him._ Even if it was for Splinter.

“What are you even doing, Jones?” he asked himself more than once on his sluggish walk through the streets. 

_His_ streets. The streets _he_ protected. With or without Dragons. 

And it was definitely more _with_ Dragons those days than he ever would have liked to admit. 

His mind more than once led his wandering feet toward the church that had been his home for so long. Then he’d turn back around in the cold, New York night and try to wander around. 

Casey would have told anyone who found him that he wasn’t looking for any trouble, but the duffle bag across his back filled with repurposed hockey gear and his signature mask, of course, begged otherwise. 

Trouble would be found, or it would find him, he figured. 

That was why he had to let go of so many things he would have never imagined he could have – his family, his principles, _April_ …

They were all things he could not continue to risk for his own selfish gain. 

But it didn’t feel _good_ either. To see how much his choices were hurting those around him. The only times that they did was when he was being reassured by the only family he really had left those days. 

Finally, Casey’s wandering brought him to the Foot Headquarters. Ninja bowed at his passing as he came to the throne room that once housed the man – or _monster_ – who had nearly taken his life. 

Now it was home instead to the mutant – or _man,_ if ever there was someone who deserved the title – who was responsible for saving him, mind body and soul.

No one so much as looked at him crossed way as he entered the room. He was expected, he was respected.

It was the kind of feeling Casey had never had without bashing some heads beforehand. _Earning_ that kind of reverence from people. Even when he was in his own home.

That was before he was truly loved, though. That was before he had an actual father, who commanded and deserved the sort of respect and admiration that found its way reflecting back to Casey.

And Casey would do _anything_ for the man who gave him that feeling, deserved or not as it was.

Sure enough, waiting at the Foot’s throne room was Master Splinter. He had grayed, grown even more tired since his other sons had left, and took with them more than a few of their allies. 

He looked at Casey as if he needed something, something that Casey would lead a hundred Purple Dragons to get him. 

“Welcome home, my son,” Splinter said softly. He then waved to his personal chambers. “I have asked for dinner to be prepared for us both.”

“Thanks,” Casey replied, walking up to Splinter and offering his arm to help the aging master get to his feet. 

“No, my son,” Splinter said softly. “Thank you.”

 

 


End file.
